Du Wei (footballer) - Club Career

Club Career

Du Wei started his professional football career in 2000 playing for third tier football club Shanghai Cable 02 where he was able to play in central defence or defensive midfield before the club were taken over by top tier club Shanghai Shenhua in 2002. At Shenhua, he would immediately command a regular position within the team and by his second season with them he would win the last Chinese Jia-A League league title in 2003 before it was renamed as the Chinese Super League. The following season saw him miss much of it through injury and the team would dramatically miss his services, finishing tenth within the league.

When he returned from injury, his impressive displays for Shenhua would see Scottish club Celtic F.C. interested in him and his agent Edmund Chu, president of RAMP Management Group would oversee his move to the Scottish Premier League at the 2005-06 season, on a six-month short term contract, which was hoped to lead to a long term contract. At Celtic, he would make several appearances on the bench before he would finally make his debut in the Scottish Cup third round tie against Clyde on 9 January 2006 in a shock 2-1 defeat. His uninspiring first team debut saw him substituted at half time by Celtic manager Gordon Strachan with his performance seeing him being outplayed by the opposition. After that display, he was dropped from the team and his loan was cut short with him returning to Shanghai.

Back at Shanghai Shenhua, he would continue to command a regular starting place within the team and would eventually become the team's captain by the 2008 league season, however after a disappointing 2009 campaign where Shenhua finished in fifth, the club were willing to listen for offers on him. After a protracted transfer period, he would join top tier side Hangzhou Greentown on 10 March 2010 where he would keep wearing the shirt number 5 for the following season. He would also be named as the club's captain and would immediately settle in the teams defence where he was partnered with his previous teammate Ng Wai Chiu and help guide the club to their best ever league position of fourth and a chance to play in the AFC Champions League for the first time. Leading Hangzhou Greentown into their debut AFC Champions League campaign, he would play in five games as they were knocked out in the group stages, however this was to prove to be the highlight of his career with them as the club couldn't improve upon their previous season league campaign and finished in eighth.

On 3 July 2012, halfway through the 2012 Chinese league season, Du was allowed to be transferred to top tier side Shandong Luneng. On 7 July 2012, he was immediately installed within the team and make his debut for his new club in a league game against Guizhou Renhe where he also scored as his club won 3-1.

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